Washington State Tests New Website

The state of Washington is now testing a new website with a streamlined design and modern appearance. The website's old design featured a lot of information available in several languages, but the new design centers around the user rather than presenting the information like an index.

Many of the text links and small images from the old design have been replaced with intuitive buttons or graphics. Important information is prominently featured in the new design so users do not need to work as hard to find the things they want to know. For instance, the new design features a heading entitled “How Do I” that is followed by a list of common things people want to do, such as “Get power outage information” or “See the winning lottery numbers.”

Services offered by the state are sorted by most popular, rather than a traditional alphabetized list, although that option is still available for those who want it. Social media and news are more prominently featured in the website's design and access is available to Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs and RSS feeds.